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Safety Device Off In Chicago CrashCHICAGO (AP) - The“fail-safe” device on a rapid transit train was not working properly and had been turned off when it slammedinto the rear of another train, say Chicago Transit Authority officials.A 61-year-old man, one of more than 400 persons injured in the collision, died Saturday. The dead man, Kenneth Biere of Chicago, was one of the 61 persons hospitalized after the rush-hour collision Friday.The crash occured when a six-car electric train stopped at a station on the city’s Northwest Side. A second commuter train, with four cars,plowed intoits rear end.Officials of the CTA, which runs the city’s transit lines, acknowledged that the motorman of the second train, McKinley Ross, 35. had been allowed to turn oft the “fail-safe” device installed to prevent such crashes.The device was out of order and Ross had been told by his supervisor to turn it off and operate the train manually, the CTA said.Operating without thesafety device, Ross said he was temporarily blinded by the glare of sun and snow.Ross said his train was within 300 feet of the Addison St. station before he saw the other train sitting in the station, according to Hubert H. Jewell Jr., a safety investigator for the NationalTransportation Safety Board, a federal agency investigating the crash.Jewell said the train standing in the station was delayed three minutes because ol power failure in the rearcar.Ross said he was traveling about 30 to 35 miles on hour when he saw the train in the station and hit his emergency brakes. It was too late.The impact of the collisiondamaged every car of both trains and telescoped the lead car of the moving train into the rear car of the train in the station. There were atotal of about 600 passengerson the two trains.“I flew out of my seat and slid along the floor and smashed into a railing,” said Anne Dem, 52, a passenger. “People around me smashed their lips and faces on the guardrails... I could see teeth on the floor.”
Newspaper Details
Albuquerque Journal
Albuquerque, New Mexico, US
Sun, Jan 11, 1976
Page 45
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 24 Dec 2021
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